Here is a chart showing different “languages” of writing a pattern. Sometimes I come across the perfect pattern, but it’s not written in US terms. I’m probably not the only one who has this problem, so here is the chart I use to “translate” these patterns. I’ve included the 5 “languages” I most commonly come across: symbol, keyboard, US, UK and Dutch.
- Symbol: These symbols will make up a chart. The advantage of charts is that they are often universal: if you can read one, you can read all! They are especially useful with patterns that contain lots of different kinds of stitches. Example
- Keyboard: I have found lots of Asian patterns containing this way of writing. Letters on the keyboard correspond to different stitches. These patterns often contain lots of characters I do not understand, but I’ve found I can often figure out how to make them by looking at the pictures, the stitch count and this chart of course! Example
- US: American. I think this is the most popular way of writing patterns! All my patterns are written this way unless specified otherwise.
- UK: British! If you don’t know whether a pattern is UK or US, just look for “single crochet”. If a pattern is from the UK, it will never contain sc!
- NL: Better known as Dutch, which is the language they speak in the Netherlands, has nothing to do with German ;). I’m Dutch, so that’s why this was the first I learned 🙂
